Thunder forward Kevin Durant walks off the AT&T Center court after Monday's Game 1 loss to the Spurs in the Western Conference finals. / Soobum Im, USA TODAY Sports

by Sam Amick, USA TODAY Sports

by Sam Amick, USA TODAY Sports

SAN ANTONIO - Nick Collison was in no mood to talk, and who could blame him?

The Oklahoma City Thunder forward had newly installed stitches in his bloody lip and a tooth that had been jarred loose by the back of Tim Duncan's head. On this night that was so painful for him and his Thunder teammates, the man who replaced injured Serge Ibaka in the lineup was the unwitting poster boy for a team that already finds itself in deep trouble in these Western Conference finals after Monday night's 122-105 loss in Game 1 against the San Antonio Spurs.

Collison will find out on Tuesday if his tooth that was pushed back toward his throat will need to be glued back in place. The Thunder, meanwhile, have a repair job of their own to get to work on in time for Game 2 on Wednesday.

"We weren't good enough," said Collison, the always-classy veteran who only played 15 minutes and missed all three of his shots. "Offensively, we've got to be better too. But it's not necessarily like, 'Serge is gone, replay Serge (and his role).' It's like, whoever is the five who are out there have to really play at a high level. The Spurs are great at moving the ball, finding the open man and eventually getting to the paint. We've got to be able to cut that stuff off so they're not getting in the paint and we're making them shoot jumpshots over a hand instead of letting them get to the basket so much."

Easy to say. So much harder to do.

Yes, it's only one game, one that happened to have the same final score as the Thunder's series-opening loss to the Los Angeles Clippers in the second round. But there are statistical oddities, then there are reams of credible research, and the problem from here on out for Oklahoma City is that everything the data told us about the loss of Ibaka and what it would mean against these Spurs came to pass.

Sixty-six points in the paint for this Spurs team that averaged just 41.5 points in the paint in those four regular season losses to the Thunder. Twenty-seven points for Duncan, his biggest output since Game 1 of the first round. A 57.5% shooting mark from the field and a 52.9% mark from beyond the arc that said everything about the lack of Thunder resistance without Ibaka, their one-of-a-kind presence in the paint who is out for the postseason with a left calf strain.

It's unfortunate that his worth has to be proven this way.

But this was the sort of series the Thunder had in mind when they gave him a four-year, $48 million deal in August 2012, one that eventually came with the ripple effect of Oklahoma City trading James Harden to the Houston Rockets just two months later. With him, they attack from inside and out and have the ability to cover as much hardwood as anyone in the league on the defensive. Without him, they simply don't have enough to match the all-for-one, one-for-all Spurs and sage coach Gregg Popovich.

Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook already were carrying the heaviest of loads, and asking them to take their MVP-caliber games to another level was like asking always-reliable Collison to take Ibaka's place. And now that Plan A clearly didn't work, coach Scott Brooks has two days to decipher this Spurs code before Wednesday's Game 2.

"Well, we play team defense," said Durant, who had 28 points on 10-for-19 shooting, nine rebounds and five assists. "We don't just rely on Serge. He does a great job of blocking shots, but it's all because of our team defense.

"Look, Serge is not going to be here. He's injured for the rest of the postseason, so we've got to move past that and just keep playing as a team."

Westbrook, per usual, shared his postgame news conference with Durant, and they were as in concert with their message then as they had been with their games during the physical 48 minutes. But the league's best duo simply isn't enough in this situation, even with Westbrook tallying 25 points, seven assists and five rebounds and almost singlehandedly giving the Thunder their first lead in a furious third quarter in which he scored 12 points. They had 10 of the Thunder's 16 turnovers between them, the number indicative of all the justifiable defensive attention paid to them throughout.

So what can the Thunder do from here? Even the players weren't sure in the downtrodden locker room afterward.

Collison said he would understand if Brooks wants to go small with the lineup and put him back in his reserve role.

"If coach doesn't feel like that lineup is good or whatever, then that's up to him," he said. "But for me personally, I'm just trying to get in there and do what I do well and try to get to the right spots and make the right plays."

Thunder guard Thabo Sefolosha, who missed a few crucial open looks early as the Spurs jumped out to a 20-9 lead and then played just nine of the game's final 36 minutes, was clearly frustrated by his lack of playing time. He finished scoreless and was 0-for-4 from the field, the kind of line that matters more than ever now that this is an all-hands-on-deck sort of Thunder crisis.

"Coach is going to keep substituting the way he does, but for us I think it's trusting the offense," Sefolosha said. "I don't really know what to say about (his missed shots). The last game in L.A. (against the Clippers), I made two out of three, and I never came back out on the court. It's whatever. I'll play my role, and whenever they call me to play, I'll play. When I'm on the bench, I'm there for the guys. That's all I can do at this point."

Brooks sent shivers down the Thunder nation's spine in the second quarter, when he played a lineup that didn't include Durant or Westbrook for nearly four minutes and the Thunder were outscored 15-10. It was a small sample size, to be sure, but still served as a relevant reminder that his team will have no margin for error from here on out.

Ibaka being out means this Thunder squad that so sorely misses him likely won't be far behind.

"He's not coming through those doors," Brooks said when asked if there was any chance Ibaka could make a miraculous return. "He's not coming back. We have to play better. We feel bad for Serge. He has worked all year to be put in this position, but we're all men. We have to step up and play much better."